Yeah, I've been thinking about that very point for quite some time. And it's causing me to rethink one of my core philosophical beliefs: free speech. I've always been a huge proponent of free speech. But I'm starting to conclude that the right of free speech shouldn't extend to media. There's just so much fake news out there now that people are being duped by media that seems legitimate but just isn't. Talk radio. Internet "news" agencies. Paid bloggers. Conspiracies. All that noise is having an effect and too much of the population just isn't savvy enough to distinguish truth from fiction, hypothesis from conclusion.

So your point is valid. But I remain convinced that religion's downfall is education-based. "Sacred" stories are just not believable to anyone who has a rudimentary grasp of science and history and churches' success at indoctrination depends on limiting the congregation's access to that knowledge. But if the churches ever had the guts to come out and tell people that their stories are allegory; that no one is actually claiming Jesus walked on water or rose from the dead, then people could embrace the moral truths behind those stories and not be conflicted by the literal fiction. Few institutions will survive the Information Age if they don't, likewise, amend their practises to reflect society's new access to information. When did you learn that Santa Claus was your daddy? I know my kids figured that out at a lot younger age than kids of my generation.

I've always been a huge proponent of free speech. But I'm starting to conclude that the right of free speech shouldn't extend to media.

One of the great tragedies in the history of science. Had Newton not wasted so much of his research effort on trying to find hidden messages from God in religious texts, studying the occult and alchemy, who knows what other great for-real scientific discoveries he may have had.

Yeah, I've been thinking about that very point for quite some time. And it's causing me to rethink one of my core philosophical beliefs: free speech. I've always been a huge proponent of free speech. But I'm starting to conclude that the right of free speech shouldn't extend to media. There's just so much fake news out there now that people are being duped by media that seems legitimate but just isn't. Talk radio. Internet "news" agencies. Paid bloggers. Conspiracies. All that noise is having an effect and too much of the population just isn't savvy enough to distinguish truth from fiction, hypothesis from conclusion.

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In Newton's time the occult and alchemy were legitimate fields of study. Had not serious men like Newton studied topics like these they would have never been debunked.

I suppose you could consider that Newton's studies in these fields taught him how to approach the work we know him for in our time.

As in science describes the actual world and can be used to predict things whereas religion, the occult and alchemy don't seem to do that.